Opponents of two ballot initiatives to legalize recreational marijuana sales to adults 21 and up in Montana are mounting a last-minute legal challenge to block the measures being voted on.
Initiative 190 establishes a 20-percent tax on nonmedical marijuana sales, with roughly half that revenue going to the state general fund. The proposal on the ballot sends the rest of the money to other accounts, including conservation programs, substance abuse treatment and veterans’ services.
And that, according to Steve Zabawa, is where 190 runs afoul of state law.
“In the Montana state Constitution, on a ballot initiative you can write law, whatever that ballot initiative may be – like legalizing marijuana in this case, but you cannot allocate or appropriate the revenue.”
Zabawa is with Wrong for Montana, a group opposing both I-190 and its companion, CI-118, which amends the state…
